Chapter 43: Influence

The day after the weekend, word of the Colin Creevey attack spread through Hogwarts.

This time is different from the last time, that was just a cat after all, and this time it was a student. If they hadn't heard that it's possible to save him, I fear it would have caused widespread panic.

On the other hand, the regular patrols of professors and Head students also added fuel to the anxiety on the side, even though it is a necessary act.

In the evening after the Runes class.

Felix spoke to Hermione briefly about what could be revealed, "The professors at Hogwarts will keep the young wizards safe, you can spread the word around more often about it a bit with others."

Hermione happily agreed.

"But, Professor, why did you guess that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a snake?" Hermione asked cautiously.

Felix, of course, wouldn't tell the truth, he could only relate the little story that Slytherin and snakes were compelled with.

"You mean Slytherin manipulated the snake to do his bidding?"

"Of course, after all, he's the most famous Parseltongue after all," Felix replied.

From the few words left behind by the Ravenclaw, it's clear that Slytherin had all sorts of snakes at his side and at his disposal all year round, which made him very 'famous' at the time.

Hermione exclaimed, "A Parseltongue can manipulate snakes?" Her heart thumped.

"I'm just speculating, after all, Parseltongue is so rare that there aren't many samples to study. But since this ability is hereditary, it means that it is not simply a type of exotic language, but contains magic power ..."

...

In one corner of the common room, a violent conflict is breaking out among the trio.

"Harry, I think you should tell Dumbledore, or Professor Hap, about you being a Parseltongue."

"Don't say it." Ron retorted without a second thought.

"Ron! You don't know the extent of the problem yet." Hermione glared at him in annoyance.

Ron lowered his head and whispered, "Harry, I mean, don't make this a public secret, if you expose your Parseltongue in public, you'll be finished and definitely treated as the heir to Slytherin."

"We could just tell Headmaster Dumbledore and ask him to keep it a secret," Hermione argued reasonably.

Harry rubbed his forehead, "But it wouldn't mean much, right? You guys know I'm not the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets, which means that there's still a Parseltongue lurking in the school."

"If I'm exposed, then maybe he will hide even deeper instead."

Harry didn't want to reveal his secret, not only because of the bad reputation of the Parseltongue but also because of some kind of hidden mental resistance towards the strong proposal from the Sorting Hat when he was sorted in his first year to enter Slytherin House.

Was that a sign of something?

That the Sorting Hat saw him for what he is?

Harry said to Hermione, "What's more, we can't be sure if the monster is a snake yet, can we? Maybe what I heard that day is just the murmuring of a passing snake, Professor Hap admitted as much. And you haven't found a corresponding snake in all the days you've been trawling the library?"

Hermione left speechless; the closest thing she had found came from a species called Basilisk, which had a lethal gaze, but it didn't petrify people.

Ron finally made up his differences on the subject, "Let's just brew some Polyjuice Potion as soon as we can and get Malfoy to talk about this."

"And that little elf called Dobby, he's weird too."

In addition to reassuring the young wizard in class over the next week, Felix made a point of caution, "Don't trust any artefact that talks unless you can see where its thoughts are hidden."

"Professor, are you talking about the Sorting Hat?" One of the twins, Fred, asked.

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"No, it's been through a thousand years, we can trust it enough," Felix said seriously, "but some sorts of other things, like things you get by chance from library shelves, from old abandoned broom closets, like those, if you find you can talk to them, then you must beware."

"They can be extremely dangerous Dark Magic artefacts."

"I could give hundreds of similar examples ..."

For the next half of the lesson, Felix continued to scare the unreliable little wizards with real-life examples from various countries, and judging by the looks on their faces, he had achieved his goal.

By late afternoon, when the twins told others the story they had heard, they all listened with rapt attention.

"I never thought Professor Hap is so knowledgeable," Fred said to Ron as he and George came into a corner of the common room.

He squeezed his eyes and gestured to a moody Ginny, "Ginny, I have quite a few stories left to tell, if you want to hear them, I ..."

"No need!" Ginny said desperately.

The twins looked at each other and began to exaggerate as they imitated an unlucky man who had found a dark magic book and whose eyes had grown on the book ever since.

Ginny shivered as she listened.

"Okay guys, don't scare Ginny." Hermione took the younger girl's hand and said soothingly, "The Professor will protect us, as long as we don't get too curious ..."

Ginny nodded.

The next day at noon, Ginny took a sneaky glance and left the large group for a secluded area where she pulled a black book out of her book bag and threw it with force.

In the afternoon, Potion class ended, and the trio quietly made their way into the abandoned lavatory to brew the Polyjuice Potion.

"All going well so far," Hermione announced happily as she looked at the colour of the potion.

"Wait." Harry looked to a corner of the lavatory where there seemed to be something, but it was too dark for him to make much out of it.

He is just about to get closer when suddenly there were footsteps outside the door.

The trio looked at each other in alarm - "Who's there?" Harry shouted.

The footsteps quickly scurried away.

Gritting his teeth, Harry got the door open and chased after him and, halfway through, he came back.

"It's Malfoy!" He said through gritted teeth, "He must have followed us here."

"So did he find out about ..."

"Not sure."

"But it's not safe here anymore."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione agreed to change places and this time, they chose an abandoned classroom in the basement.

"It's pretty isolated."

The three of them were very satisfied with the new location.

In the evening, a young wizard slipped quietly into the place where Harry and the others had brewed their potions earlier, hesitated slightly, and went into the girls' lavatory.

Halfway through the day, he stepped out and left quickly, something hidden in his robe.

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